Bathhouse Row

 

Bathhouse Row in the early 1900s

NPS photo, HOSP archives

The History of Bathhouse Row

The first bathhouses were crude structures of canvas and lumber, little more than tents perched over individual springs or reservoirs carved out of the rock. Later, businessmen built wooden structures, but they frequently burned, collapsed because of shoddy construction, or rotted due to continued exposure to high temperatures and humidity. As the bathhouses continued to grow in popularity, the park's superintendent deemed that more resilient and fireproof structures were needed. Starting in 1896, many of the wooden bathhouses were replaced with the bathhouses that we see today made of masonry and steel.

Hot Springs Creek

Hot Springs Creek, which ran right in front of all the bathhouses, drained its own watershed and collected the runoff of all the springs until the late 1880s. As Hot Springs Reservation grew in popularity and population, it became an eyesore due to pollution. The creek was also dangerous at times of high water and certain areas of the creek became mere collections of stagnant pools at dry times.

 

Color Postcard of Bathhouse Row along Hot Springs Creek before the archway was built.
Labeled: HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, ARK. THE WORLD'S SANITARIUM IN 1875

Hot Springs Creek & Early Bathhouses

In 1882-83 the government enclosed Hot Springs creek in an underground arch for flood and sewerage control. The arch was then covered with earth, and the area above it was landscaped to create a pleasing park bounded with Lombardy poplars. This allowed room for landscaping in front of the bathhouses, creating the Bathhouse Row and you see today.The new Victorian bathhouses built between 1880 and 1888 were larger and more luxurious than could have been dreamed of ten years earlier. The haphazardly placed wooden troughs carrying the thermal water down the mountainside were replaced with underground pipes. Roads and paths were improved for the convenience of visitors who wished to enjoy the scenery.

The Secretary of the Interior appointed U.S. Army Captain John R. Stevens to oversee a number of ambitious landscaping and building projects in the 1890s. The Secretary originally planned to retain Frederick Law Olmsted’s personal landscaping services, but after a series of misunderstandings and mutual dissatisfaction, the Olmsted firm withdrew. The Secretary then authorized Stevens to salvage what he could from the Olmsted firm’s designs and complete other enhancements as he saw fit. The resulting improvements included a formal entrance, mountain drives, a lake park on Whittington Avenue, fountains, and a brick bathhouse for the indigent.

By 1901 all of the springs had been walled up and covered to protect them. Between 1912 and 1923 the wooden Victorian bathhouses built in the 1880s were gradually replaced with fire-resistant brick and stucco bathhouses, several of which featured marble walls, billiard rooms, gymnasiums, and stained glass windows. The final metamorphosis of Bathhouse Row was completed when the Lamar Bathhouse opened its doors for business in 1923. The bathhouses, all of which are still standing today, ushered in a new age of spa luxury.

 

Four women enjoy a stroll down bathhouse row in the late 1940s. The Buckstaff Bathhouse is in the foreground and the Ozark Bathhouse is in the background.

NPS Photo/HOSP

 

The Decline of the Bathing Industry

By the 1960s the bathing industry in the park and in the city had declined considerably. On Bathhouse Row, the eight grand bath­houses that had been thriving since their construc­tion in the first three decades of the century suffered from the decline. The elegant Fordyce Bathhouse was the first to close, in 1962, followed by the Maurice, the Ozark, and the Hale in the 1970s. In 1984 the Quapaw (briefly reincarnated as Health Services, Inc.) and the Superior closed. When the Lamar closed in 1985, it left only the Buckstaff still operating on Bathhouse Row.

Bathhouse Row and its environs were placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1974. The desire to revitalize Bathhouse Row also led citi­zens to campaign for adaptive uses of the vacant buildings. The strongest concern was to save the most elegant bathhouse, the Fordyce, which was consequently adapted for use as the Hot Springs National Park visitor center and museum. At this point in time most of the bathhouses have been renovated and adapted for modern use.

Useful Facts about the Historic Buildings on Bathhouse Row

 

Name	Operator	Construction Cost	Architect	Opened	Remodeled	Closed	Possessorary Interest Cost/Date
Lamar	Lamar Bathhouse Co. Sidney M. Nutt Pres.	130,000	Roberts & Schwebke	1923	1931	1985	900 (1986)
Buckstaff	Buckstaff Bathhouse Co., organized by: Gilbert E. Hogaboom Milo R. Buckstaff Sinclair Mainland	125,000	Frank W. Gibb & Co. Christopher & Simpson	1912	1921 1925, Mann & Stern 1953	--	--
Ozark	Ozark Bathhouse Co., organized by: W. S. Sorrells Ernest F. Latta	93,000	Mann & Stern, Architects	1922	1927, J. G. Horn 1941, Irven D. McDaniel	1977	648 (1981)
Quapaw	Quapaw Bathhouse Co.:* George Callahan, Pres.	214,837	Mann & Stern, Architects	1922	1929, 1968	1968 1984**	22,193 (1984)
Fordyce	Samuel W. Fordyce	220,000	Mann & Stern, Architects	1915	1938, John R. Fordyce	1962	152,000 (1985)
Maurice	Maurice Bathhouse Co.: William G. Maurice, Pres.	130,000	George R. Gleim, Jr.	1912	1915-16, Mann & Stern	1974	5,688 (1976)
Hale	Logan H. Roots George H. Eastman		Logan H. Roots George H. Eastman	1892	1914, George R. Mann 1938, Thompson,	1978	19,570 (1982)
Superior	Superior Bathhouse Co.: E. L. Howlett, Pres.	68,000	Harry C. Schwebke	1916	1928	1983	5,872 (1983)
Admin Building	National Park Service	176,182	George Mann, Architect	1935	1992	--	--

* Organized by the Horse Shoe-Magnesia Bathhouse Corp. and originally called Platt Bathhouse.; renamed in 1922
**Reopened as Health Services, Inc., in 1969, then closed for good in 1984